Harder Than Hard: the Best 6 String Bass Guitars

I am going to need you to take a seat, because what I am going to give you right now is heavy and, unless you have been doing a lot of weight lifting lately, will be uncomfortable to play for an extended period of time. The news might come as a surprising bag of bricks, but the 6 string bass exists, and it is in every way much more complicated to play than the five string or the four string bass. It is much more complicated than the non bass electric guitar, whether it be 6 or 7 strings, because of the specifics that come with playing bass. Heavy strings and strong sound, extremely wide fretboard and heavy build of the 6 string bass guitar make it an instrument only the bravest and the most skillful will attempt to play and succeed in playing it well. This is not to discourage you though, only to act as a fair warning. Now that you know that you will be having a heavy problem weighing you down, both physically and spiritually, and since you are still willing to deal with this hardship, I would like to introduce you to what potentially will be the love of your life. The best 6 string bass guitars are instruments of immense power, ones that require commitment that is physical, mental and spiritual. My friend, who actually has one of these beasts, says that the funk demands more than you are able to give, since funk is infinite, it demands 6 strings and it demands constant play. Which is why he is in love with his 6 string bass: despite the complicated relationship of constant attention and practice, the ability to play the funkiest solos and tunes gives him all the reason he needs to adore the instrument. The successful musician, one of which you might be, will find the 6 string bass guitar to be one of the greatest assets to his collection.

Schecter has a talent for manufacturing guitars and bass guitars that conquer the favor of my heart with ease. Whether it is because the style is beautiful or because the sound is great I do not know. What I know is that the stiletto bass series are some of the best mid range bass guitars ever made. So when I found out that there is a six string version of the Stiletto I rejoiced, knowing that the quality would be something to be proud of. The Schecter Stiletto Studio-6 Electric bass guitar proves me right, once again, by being a great quality bass guitar. The neck through design is perfect for the 6 string bass, as it makes the higher tones easier to play, especially on a complicated 6 stringer. The mahogany body with a bubinga top gives the guitar the resonance across the range of tones that the 6 string bass guitar needs, emphasizing the lows and the highs with the same level of beauty. The EMG-Hz pickups do their best and succeed at picking up every sound as it should be hear. Overall this is the best midrange 6 string bass guitar on the market.

You will rarely need any additional ways of attracting attention to yourself when you buy a six string bass guitar. Just the size and the range of sounds you will be producing will be sufficient to keep all eyes and ears directed towards you. Though sometimes even that might not feel like it is enough. In those cases when you need something more than the basics, you might want to look at beautiful design. The Ibanez Bass Workshop SRFF806BK S Multi Scale electric bass guitar is one of those items that is gifted great design. Available in several colors, with all of them having beautiful looks, this bass guitar is bound to become one of your favorites in the collection. The ash body of the guitar adds the precision to individual notes that you did not think was available in the affordable price range that this guitar is in. The two Bartolini BH1 pickups are powerful enough to make everyone tremble at your thunderous notes. Overall it is a great bass guitar for anyone looking for a 6 stringer.

The Corvette is a luxurious car, reserved for those who only look for the best qualities an item they own can have. The same luxury and expectation transfers to anything and everything that in some way bears the name of the corvette. Be it a car, musical instrument or a book, when I pick it up I expect speed, comfort and a lot of fun. The Warwick Corvette Basic 6 string active electric bass guitar tries to live up to the name of the corvette, and approaches success at the speed of sound. The idea of a corvette is to exceed expectations and to push boundaries. The instrument does just that. The six strings push all kinds of sonic boundaries that an average bass guitar player could not even scratch the surface of. The Alder body allows the pushing of the envelope to continue to a point where you feel like you might be going a little too far, and then the active pickups give the turbo boost to the sound you will find more than enough to impress you.

The only requirement for the best 6 string bass guitar to be categorized as such is the ability to sound good. It does not have to have some of the best tonewoods money can buy, neither do the electronics have to be breaking records. What a bass guitar needs is to sound strong and sound good. The Dean Edge 6 string bass guitar does just that. The basswood body, lightweight as it might be, does not lighten the load that comes with the 6 string bass guitar. Still, the sound is resonated well throughout the body. The Dean design pickups are powerful enough and reproduce a strong enough sound that whoever is listening will be wowed by it. The whole thing is, you can rarely get a six string bass guitar as good as this one for the price it is offered for. Affordable and good in quality, it is bound to be one of the best choices for any beginner or professional looking to extend their skills into higher and lower registers.

Sometimes we all get lucky to find something out of the ordinary among the pile of average or mediocre. It is like finding a needle made of pure gold among a pile of straw. Seems impossible, needs immense luck but in the end is incredibly rewarding. In the case of Ibanez GSR260SMNGT GIO I ended up feeling incredulous, looking and hearing how good it actually is. Compared to most guitars in the same price range, this instrument might seem impossible, a piece of imagination. Still, it is one of the, if not the, best affordable 6 string bass guitar on the market. The maple top combined with the DXH-6 pickup serve to produce a dance inducing sound with beautiful precision in the upper registers, while remaining serious and mellow in the low. This guitar is perfect if you are a budget conscious buyer looking for something good for a price that won’t make you feel guilty days later.

Pros:

Full Tones

Fun Design

Powerful Sound

Solid Tuning Stability

Cons:

Heavy

Bolt on neck

Cheap Nut

The 6 string bass guitar serves as the alternative to the 5 string bass guitar, for those who find that the 5 string is too limited in the range it has. It is common for the 5th string on a five string bass to extend into the lower register of the tones, while in some guitars the fifth string is used to extend into the higher tones, but it remains that the 5 stringer can only handle of the two. The six string bass guitar spits in the face of limits though and extends the range of the instrument into both the high and the low registers with each extra added string. This means that you can travel up and down the spines of your listeners with shivers that you can induce through some of the most drastic and beautiful transitions from one register to the other. This also means that you have a big responsibility, since you know, you get all that power. You need to learn how to actually creatively utilize this extended range without becoming overbearing. Yes such versatility means that you should not be limited, but limiting yourself might sometimes produce the better result. Whichever path you choose, I hope you find the time spent studying and playing this instrument to be as enjoyable as I find the music played on it.

Conclusion

My first interaction with the 6 string bass was on television, back when television was still the main source of entertainment in a household, back when booting up the internet meant listening to an atrocious sound being made and you’d have to tell everyone not to use the phone. My grandfather had fallen asleep in front of the set, and I had been left alone with the remote to roam the tele-space. I ended up on some music channel or the other and had to pause so that I could ask my sleeping grandfather, and consequently without an answer, myself, what the instrument being played was. Thankfully the announcer found it appropriate to announce the musician and the instrument, and that I had been lucky enough to hear Victor Wooten perform one of his sons on a 6 string bass guitar. It was fascinating to observe the mastery and skill with which his fingers traversed the fretboard, the way he picked them and the way he slapped them. Whatever he was playing was beyond my comprehension at the time, since my musical taste had yet to mature to a point where I could understand what a truly well crafted bass solo sounded like. Though I got to observe him play and that was all I needed to be hypnotized, as the 6 string bass had invaded my imagination to stay for a long time. I got to watch the best 6 string bass guitar player perform his piece on television and be introduced to the instrument in a manner that I would never forget. Late night television was truly the best. Except in about 7 minutes the song had ended, my grandpa had woken up and I had been chased off to bed. Still, something of a fond memory to live with now that I am an adult myself.